At the time it purchased half of Carphone Warehouse Group, Best Buy was planning an overseas expansion. It intended to leverage its stake in Carphone to help launch a chain of Best Buy stores in Europe.

However, fallout from the European debt crisis and the continent’s lingering recession scuttled those plans. In 2011. Best Buy paid $1.3 billion to acquire Carphone’s stake in its U.S. mobile phone partnership.

Best Buy’s withdrawal from the joint venture leaves Carphone with 2,400 stores in nine countries across Europe.